The conquest of Nubia having been almost entirely the work of the Theban dynasties, the Theban triad, Amon, Maut, and Montu, and their immediate followers were paramount in this region, while in the north, in witness of the ancient Elephantinite colonisation, we find Khnumu of the cataract being worshipped, in connexion with Didun, father of the indigenous Nubians. The worship of Amon had been the means of introducing that of Ea and of Horus, and Osiris as lord of the dead, while Phtah, Sokhit, Atumu, and the Memphite and Heliopolitan gods were worshipped only in isolated parts of the province. A being, however, of less exalted rank shared with the lords of heaven the favour of the people. This was the Pharaoh, who as the son of Amon was foreordained to receive divine honours, sometimes figuring, as at Bohani, as the third member of a triad, at other times as head of the Ennead. Usirtasen III. had had his chapels at Semneh and at Kummeh, they were restored by Thutmosis III., who claimed a share of the worship offered in them, and whose son, Amenothes II., also assumed the symbols and functions of divinity. [Illustration: 059.jpg ONE OF THE RAMS OF AMENOTHES III] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mons. de Mertens. Amenothes I. was venerated in the province of Kari, and Amenothes III., when founding the fortress Hait-Khammait* in the neighbourhood of a Nubian village, on a spot now known as Soleb, built a temple there, of which he himself was the protecting genius.** * The name signifies literally "the Citadel of Khammait," and it is formed, as Lepsius recognised from the first, from the name of the Sparrow-hawk Khammait, "Mait rising as Goddess," which Amenothes had assumed on his accession. ** Lepsius recognised the nature of the divinity worshipped in this temple; the deified statue of the king, "his living statue on earth," which represented the god of the temple, is there named "Nibmauri, lord of Nubia." Thutmosis III. had already worked at Soleb. The edifice was of considerable size, and the columns and walls remaining reveal an art as perfect as that shown in the best monuments at Thebes. It was approached by an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, while colossal statues of lions and hawks, the sacred animals of the district, adorned the building. The sovereign condescended to preside in person at its dedication on one of his journeys to the southern part of his empire, and the mutilated pictures still visible on the facade show the order and detail of the ceremony observed on this occasion. The king, with the crown upon his head, stood before the centre gate, accompanied by the queen and his minister Amenothes, the son of Hapi, who was better acquainted than any other man of his time with the mysteries of the ritual.*